Farm Gates & Ranch Entrances in Springfield, MO
Springfield Farm Fence hangs farm gates, builds ranch entrances, and sets cattle guards for pastures, drives, and working pens around Springfield, Republic, Willard, Rogersville, Fair Grove, and Marshfield. We install tube gates, wire gates, walk gates, and entrance headers across Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk, Dallas, and Lawrence counties, Missouri.
Gates fail before fences do, so the hardware and the post both get specified. We hang Tarter tube gates and Priefert heavy gates on bolt-through hinges, not lag screws, with the top hinge pin turned down so a smart cow cannot lift the gate off. Latches are chain and lever hardware that one hand can work while the other holds a lead rope. The hinge post is CCA ground contact treated at eight inches across, or steel pipe on a heavy opening, drilled to depth through the chert and braced back into the fence line with an H-brace running away from the swing. The far side gets its own braced post so the latch has something solid to close against. The version that comes apart is a gate hung on a line post with two lag hinges and no brace behind it.
Entrances and Headers
A ranch entrance is the first thing anybody sees of a place. Pipe or timber corner posts with an overhead header carry a name sign and frame the drive, and the same posts have to hold the gates hanging on them. Header posts go deeper than any other post on the property, because they carry a beam overhead and a gate at the side at the same time. Sinkhole ground and shallow bedrock both show up on drives near Springfield, and we drill and footing those posts accordingly rather than guessing.
Walk Gates and Everyday Access
Most places need a small gate more than they think. A four foot walk gate near the barn, another at the water tank, and one where you check a fence on foot will save you climbing over wire for years. Walk gates hang cheap and easy on an existing braced post, and they are the single most useful thing we add to a fence job that nobody asks for on the first call.
Booking Gate Work
Gate work goes in with a fence build or on its own, and a hinge post reset is a quick job we do year round when the ground is workable. Call (417) 555-0195. Gate openings on pipe corrals get a heavier spec than pasture openings do.
What size farm gate should I buy?
Match the gate to what has to pass through it. Ten and twelve foot gates handle stock and a pickup. Sixteen foot is the working size for a tractor, a round bale on a spear, or a truck and trailer that has to swing wide. Field entrances that see combines or hay equipment often want two gates meeting in the middle rather than one long one, since a twenty foot gate sags under its own weight no matter how well it is hung.
Why does my farm gate drag on the ground?
The hinge post moved. A gate hangs off one post and levers against it every single time it swings, and that load pulls the top of the post toward the opening. Once the post tips a few degrees, the far end of the gate drops several inches. Shimming the hinges buys a season. The real fix is resetting the hinge post deeper and bracing it back into the fence line so the pull has somewhere to go.
How deep does a gate post go?
Deeper than the line posts on the same fence, and always braced. We put hinge posts four feet down where the ground allows, and around Springfield that usually means drilling into limestone with a rock bit to get there. A hinge post can take concrete or a steel pipe sleeve, which is one of the few places we will put concrete near a gate, because the swinging load is constant and one-directional in a way normal fence load is not.
Is a cattle guard worth it instead of a gate?
On a drive you use every day, yes. Nobody gets out of the truck, and nobody leaves it open. What a cattle guard needs is a proper footing: a poured or block base on both sides sitting on solid ground, wings that tie into the fence so animals cannot walk around, and enough depth under the grid that it does not fill with mud and rock. A guard set on dirt settles, and a settled guard is one a determined cow will cross.